Some Things Never Change
by openxyourxeyes
Summary: Katie Bell was one of those respected Gryffindors -- good grades, good looks, and amazing Quidditch skills. She had everything, and then she met him. And everything started falling...
1. Dreaming of a Quidditch Prince

**So** _**this is where I would flash a neon "welcome" sign in your face, jump up and down, and thank you over and over again for visiting my humble fanfiction.**_

Eh. As it's rather impossible to do that, I'll just say thanks again for visiting my fanfiction and I hope that you'll find it enjoyable.

Basically, if you want some "author information" – I'm a wannabe writer who's thirteen years old, loves Harry Potter to death, and will try to update as often as I can.

This fanfiction is not exactly planned out too well, actually. I usually have a big plot to revolve around (as I only usually write Lily/James, and that's pretty serious), but this one is going to be a Katie Bell fanfiction. The plot is still loose, and because these are not main characters, I won't have as much Voldy action, I don't think. It's a Katie Bell/Marcus Flint piece (I got the ship off of one of my friends, Emily – named TraumaQueen – read "Counting her Tears" ) mostly based on Katie's point of view.

Now, this isn't a really popular ship, I don't think, because I don't remember if JKR expresses exactly how old Marcus is and if he's in the same year as Katie…well, I don't know. So let's just pretend that this is Harry's fifth year, and Katie (who I'm assuming is in the same year as Gred and Forge) and Marcus's seventh. (And I have no idea how many times Marcus had done sixth/seventh year over…I do think JKR creates as him as a rather stupid character…and he's done sixth year over three times? Yeahhh…if you have any info about that, help.)

Right, so the time and the age and everything might not exactly fit, so you can call the fic AU – alternate universe. Hah.

**Disclaimer.** I am not J.K. Rowling. I am using her characters to form a fanfiction, and am not breaking the law/earning any money off this piece. This is just for fun.

**Fabula Incipio!** (I do believe that's latin for "let the story begin," or you know, along the lines of that.)

_ **S**_ome things never change, and one of them was Katie Bell.

As she sat there, curled up in front of the fire, parchment in hand (and as blank as ever) all she could really think about was Quidditch.

The light breeze that would slide by her cheek as she flew by on her broom…

The feel of the wood in her palms, or a leather ball…

Shouting crowds, fervor, sweat, swarms of gold and red, cheering.

All for her. All for her, Miss Katie Bell, of the Wasps, scoring the most goals with her trusty red Quaffle, a confident smile on her face.

Her face plastered on Witch Weekly and The Daily Prophet, a role model for all.

"Katie Bell scores the most goals at Quidditch Cup on Sunday, once again making it a win for England! She will be signing autographs on Tuesday at Flourish and Blotts. Be there!"

Radio talk show hosts calling all over for her to be on their show on Wednesday, to talk about the win, and Hogwarts begging for her to make a speech for graduation of the seventh years on Friday.

"No, you're all booked, Miss Bell, ma'am, for Friday." Her assistant would say, and Katie would smile and give her a bonus just because she was, of course, the sweetest celebrity alive.

"Cancel whatever is on Friday, because I'm going to be at Hogwarts. That is, after all, where I learned a lot of my Quidditch skills. Oh, and set up a phone call for Oliver – I need to thank him for teaching me his fabulous tactics on Quidditch."

"Already done, Miss Bell. In fact, I have a dinner for you on Saturday with him. Seven o'clock sound okay, miss?"

"Charming."

And then she would meet a lovely man, all decked out in the Wimbourne Wasps

(A/N – that _is_ the name for the British team, right? Or am I remembering wrong?)

costume, the new guy, the seeker. And they would kiss right there, after they'd won the match, fingers running through hair and the whole nine yards, and he would propose, and there would be a diamond Quaffle on her finger.

Just like that.

Perfect, perfect, perfect.

"Katie. Katie! Have you been listening to me?"

"Eh?"

"Katie, what have you been doing the last half hour?"

"Uh…daydreaming, I believe."

There was a pause. Exasperation and bemusement mixed into one.

"Katie, please. Listen to me."

Sighing, she looked up into her best friend's face, forgetting all fragments of Quidditch dreams and perfect men in a second.

_No matter,_ she thought, _he'll be back in my dreams._

"What were you saying, Angelina?"

"I was _telling _you," She said, smiling all the while, " – that this afternoon, at lunch, I swear George Weasley was checking you out…like crazy. Seriously, he had this daydreaming look on his face, and he had his right cheek resting on his hand, and his finger was running absentmindedly along the length of his lips, and he just sighed…and god, you guys would be so perfect together!" Angelina was clearly very excited as she said this, jumping up and down and waving her arms around.

Katie just nodded and smiled. They'd been through this conversation before, and the topic usually went away if she ignored it.

"What? No shriek of excitement, Katie?"

"Angelina, you know as well as I do that I do not like George Weasley. Why do you think I would want to marry The Three Stooges…except mixed into one, crazy, redheaded prat? I don't like him, and trust me, I don't even think he likes me."

"Nonsense! Of course he likes you! And besides – wouldn't it be great? You know, if I got married to Fred, and you to George…and – "

" – And we'd be sisters in law. One problem, Angie. I don't like George, and I don't fancy marrying him." Katie scowled at her best friend and turned away.

"And besides," she said, a little carefully this time, knowing that Angelina would probably be extremely sensitive about the subject, "if you like Fred so much why are you dating other people?"

"Well, I'm trying to make him jealous, obviously. We've discussed this before – "

"No, Angelina. We both know that you like Fred and he likes you back so why don't you just dump your boyfriend – or for all I know, _boyfriends -- _and just buy a ring and announce your true love to the whole world! If you know that you're meant for him, save Fred the trouble of having to go bright purple with jealousy every time he sees you making out with some sleazy boyfriend of yours, which you have a new one every week, and – "

Katie stopped. She had definitely gone too far.

"Kathryn Marilyn Bell!" Angelina's voice was strong like her parents, and if she didn't know better, Katie would have mistaken that her best friend was just about ready to spank her and ground her. "Are you calling me a _whore?!_" The last word was spat out a little too loudly, and Katie saw a couple people in the common room turn their heads curiously. She had half a mind to stand up and shout for people to mind their own business, but she thought better of it. Keeping her voice low, she replied.

"No! Why would I call you a whore? You're my best friend, 'Lina."

She wondered if she should just leave it at that, just let Angelina keep dating all her stupid boyfriends and ruin the chance that she had with Fred, but…

She couldn't do it.

"But, Angelina – I don't think you should keep up this jealousy thing anymore. He obviously likes you without having to be jealous of you. Just – you know – dump your boyfriends – "

"Boyfriend!" Cried Angelina, shrilly.

" – Dump your boyfriend and ask Fred out."

Angelina considered this for a second, chewing on her bottom lip and examining her nails, which was her trademark-thinking move.

"Look, you might think it's a bad plan to date different guys, but I'm seventeen and I'm having fun before I want to quite settle down with Fred. And besides, he might not even like me! Just…butt out of my love life."

Katie would have held both hands up in the classic hold-up move and agreed, but she couldn't help it.

"Then butt out of mine."

"Excuse me?!" Angelina's voice was too high again…and definitely doing a big crescendo in volume.

"Look, I just don't want to hear about George again – "

"Fine! But if you come crying back to me when George doesn't want you anymore, trust me, Katie, I won't help!"

Angelina stomped out of the common room for effect, swinging the portrait shut so loud that the bang echoed throughout the whole room and Katie turned a peachy red from everyone staring at her. She hated having fights in public. However, she'd had a fair share of them at Hogwarts after getting to know Angelina, because really, she didn't seem to mind the publicity at all. In fact, Angelina lived off publicity – she loved to be the center of attention and only did well in the spotlight. She hated isolation and had sworn to have lots of kids when she grew older, because she hated the quiet.

Katie sometimes wondered why they were even friends.

But when she wondered after a fight, there would always be the beautiful making up, where they would hug and cry and say "I missed you" three hundred times over until the whole common room would stand up and start clapping for the reconciliation of two wonderful friends.

And when that happened, Katie wouldn't really mind the publicity.

_…Yeah, okay, that's it. I hope you enjoyed it. Please review!_

**-Amy.**


	2. Apologies, Shmapologies

**Thanks _for the reviews and the comments. This is the second chapter, I hope you enjoy it!_**

**Azelya -** _Aw, thanks for the review. And for calling it cute… You're awesome._

**CaptainCrash -** _Haha, you're not a ditz. Thanks for the review! And yes, Friends rocks my little socks off. (10 pounds? I have no idea how much that is…sorry, I ish American.)_

Anyway…this is a Katie Bell/Marcus Flint fanfiction…and I got the idea off of a friend, Emz, aka TruamaQueen – so go read her story, "Counting her tears"!

**Disclaimer.** I am not J.K. Rowling. I am using her characters to form a fanfiction, and am not breaking the law/earning any money off this piece. This is just for fun.

**Oh, and before I forget**** – **This fanfiction is rated PG-13 for swearing, violence, and sexual innuendos.

**Fabula Incipio!**

****

****

** _It_** had been three days.

And still, Angelina Johnson – beautiful girl, talented Quidditch chaser, straight B-student, currently girlfriend of sixth year Ravenclaw soon-to-be Quidditch captain Eddie Carmichael and obvious love interest of Fred Weasley – had not reconciled with Katie Bell. Who was, of course, equally beautiful, maybe even more talented with Quidditch, straight A-student, and currently single.

And when one of Hogwart's most loved pair of friends were not talking to each other, people talked.

"Did you hear about the fight between Katie and Angelina?"

"My god, I heard that the fight took place in the common room! Merlin…I wish I hadn't missed it."

"I heard that Angelina _punched_ Katie."

"What do you think they're fighting about?"

"Probably guy troubles. I know! Maybe Katie likes Angelina's latest boyfriend!"

"Who's that?"

"Um…either Eddie, that Ravenclaw guy…or it might have been that Hufflepuff Quidditch captain…or that Jack guy…or that guy named Kevin…"

And then they would all start giggling as they realized how many guys Angelina had dated.

Then, amongst the girls, some cries of, "Merlin, she's being such a slut!" Would be heard, while the guys would laugh heartily and say, "I wish I was going out with her…"

Katie, when she heard these conversations, would put up her defenses and feel like she wanted to punch whoever was talking about her best friend in a bad way, but then she'd remember quickly that they were fighting.

They'd had bigger fights before – about bigger things.

_ So why is it that Angelina's holding up such a grudge this time? It isn't even a worthwhile subject to fight about!_

Katie would think to herself. She'd tried to apologize a couple times, once actually trying to confront her and say quite clearly to her face, "Sorry Angelina, I didn't mean to hurt you – I just don't like George, okay?" But what she had received was a very silent response, and Angelina had walked away without so much as glancing at her, rushing over to talk to one of her other friends.

Then she had tried the note-passing approach, in Transfiguration class, while they were supposed to be writing an essay about a topic that McGonagall said would be on the NEWTs. Katie knew she should be paying close attention to the teacher, but instead, she took out a blue sparkly quill (that Angelina had given her on her 4th-year Christmas) and written a genuine note to her friend.

It said something along the lines of –

_ Angelina-_

_ Look, I'm sorry if you're upset. I didn't mean to hurt you. If you want to have fun and date all these different guys, it's fine. I don't think you're a whore at all. And if you really want me to be with George, I'll consider it._

_ With love and apologies,_

_ Katie._

And after she'd read it over once, the apology and the way she was giving in so easily seemed so pathetic to her that she gave a frustrated yelp and threw the note at the corner of the room.

Unfortunately, McGonagall noticed, and picked the note up – threatening to read it in front of the class, but after reading its contents, her expression softened, and she just gave the piece of paper back to Katie.

"Miss Bell, please just work on your essay." She had said with a soft voice, smiling.

Then Katie just gave up on her efforts to apologize to Angelina.

In fact, Angelina seemed to be enjoying her time apart with her.

Smirking, Katie made up her mind to enjoy it, too.

But it was harder than she thought. When she wanted to talk about the rapidly approaching first practice for Quidditch and how much she was excited for it, she found no one to talk to.

Of course, Alicia Spinnet, a fellow Chaser, was a good friend and she supposed she could talk to her – but Alicia had always been closer to Angelina.

In a shock, Katie realized that she had never had a real friend like Angelina.

She remembered all the times they had talked together in front of the fire and shared secrets. And the bottles of butterbeer they would always clink together in celebration after winning a Quidditch match. The way they both loved the feel of the wind in their faces. The way that in Potions, when Katie almost fell asleep, Angelina would always wake up her just in time before Snape noticed anything and gave her detention. The way they helped each other with their homework.

_No,_ Katie told herself.

_The way that she's arrogant and self-centered. The way that she's so boy-crazy and never really thinks about her friends. The way that she's so disorganized. The way she doesn't really understand me._

Katie was trying to think of all the bad points of Angelina when suddenly, very suddenly, she crashed right into the very red-headed Fred Weasley. Or was it George?

Fred – or George – turned bright red as he sent Katie knocking into the floor, books scattering everywhere and her bag splitting open. Fred/George seemed to be hurrying to someplace quick too, and hadn't been looking where he was going. Rushing, he put out a hand for Katie to grab to steady herself, but she didn't take it. Something about Fred/George wasn't right. He was too jumpy.

"What's wrong?" She asked the Weasley, standing up on her own.

"Huh?! Katie? Oh – uh – nothing. Sorry for knocking into you…yeah. Er…I just have to – er – get somewhere…"

"And where would this be?" Katie asked, suddenly feeling very suspicious and yet somewhat relieved that she was actually talking to a friend, and not feeling alone for once.

"Well…if you really must know, I'm going up to the Owlery to propose to one of these snow owls that I've been seeing for a couple of months now. So if you'll excuse me…I have to go."

Katie was puzzled. Whichever Weasley this was, his humor was faltering and Angelina knew that they could be funnier than _that._ Something was wrong…

That was when Angelina turned the corner with her arm latched quite securely with Eddie Carmichael and holding a bright white rose contently, leaning over to kiss his cheek.

Eddie looked positively giddy with pleasure – which was understandable, as he was now the very public boyfriend of Angelina Johnson, who was beautiful, one year older than him, and possessed a rather curvy body.

That was enough to make any man happy.****

She looked at the Weasley and sure enough, he was turning bright purple, his lips curled into an expression of disgust, and a hand running through his red hair nervously.

With a snort, Katie realized which twin it was.

"Fred, go wherever you need to go." She said to him, gently. She was sure he didn't want to be embarrassed in front of Angelina looking flustered with a bunch of books laid out in front of him.

He raised his eyebrows and looked down at the mess of books on the floor, as if asking her once last time, "Really?" but he was already off before Katie could answer.

She bent down to pick up her schoolbooks when suddenly, she realized someone was standing right in front of her, legs apart, standing in an indignant pose.

Looking up, she saw Eddie, supporting a rather love struck, loony countenance, but still managing to look menacing, as Eddie, who was still a sixth year, was one of the tallest guys in the whole school – almost just as tall as the Weasley twins, who were over six feet.

"Yes?" She asked uncertainly, looking into gray-green eyes.

"Yeah. Angelina just wanted me to tell you…that she likes me." He said, a winning smile now on his face.

Katie smiled at him sweetly. "Well, that's obvious, isn't it? Seeing as you're her boyfriend?"

Eddie looked confused, then decided instead to say, "Well, she said that…Fred Weasley…well, she likes me better than him. And she wants you to back off…about…that." Then, as if regaining his composure, he stuck a finger in Katie's face and scowled.

"So back off."

"Tell her that I already have."

Eddie looked slightly puzzled for a moment, then nodded, and headed off in a different direction, leaving Katie sitting there with a pile of books in front of her and nothing to do but pick them up.

And suddenly, Katie wished strongly that she were back in her Quidditch daydream, with the Wasps costume and all.

_…Okay. So there's nothing really happening right now. No Flint, nothing exciting. Well…I like moving on the stories slowly, just so you get to know the characters better. And besides, don't you just love the details anyway? snorts_

**-Amy.**


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